In industrialised countries, three-quarters of the population live in urban areas. Between now and 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will be urban. Although these areas concentrate the production of waste, they are also catalysts for innovations and technologies. Because of increased awareness of the limits to global resources and the necessity to improve their management, as well as the food deprivation suffered by the poorest households and the challenges of food security, there now seems to be consensus regarding the need to reduce food losses and waste. This has resulted in a possible ranking of their re-use: act first of all at source to limit losses by optimising supply chains to urban areas or redistributing products to more deprived families; cook or process fresh products that cannot be stored any longer before using them for livestock feed, and finally recycle biowastes for non-food uses; for example, to generate energy.